04 Feb 2012
Squats:
5 x 120
5 x 150
5 x 180
5 x 210
3 x 250
8 x 180
Not bad. Didn't use the belt again. Found myself leaning forward a bit on the 8 repper- felt it in the back afterwards.
Bench:
5 x 65
5 x 80
5 x 100
5 x 115
3 x 130
8 x 100
Still unstable on the lift. Right side was working harder than the left on a few. Nailed the lift on a few others. One thing I changed up was to shrug and engage my traps. This helped me tighten my lats immensely. The hard part about pressing that I seem to keep messing up on is that when I try to squeeze my shoulder blades together, on the way up on the press, I seem to disengage the tightness in my right lat.
Rows:
5 x 65
5 x 85
5 x 100
5 x 115
3 x 130
8 x 100
Seemingly harder than before. I've reduced my hip jerking movement so I can isolate the work to my upper back and biceps. Controlled pull up, I think, is the best way to get the most out of this lift for what it's intended for. Jerking the bar up to my chest seemed to take away from the lift. This definitely made it a bit harder. I also focused on squeezing my shoulder blades together.
Accessories:
Dips - 3x8xBW: These were considerably easier than before. No pain in the shoulders afterwards also. As opposed to going straight down and up, I instead followed my shoulders down. So, from the side I would lower myself until I reached about 90 degrees between my forearm and upperarm then press myself back up.
Barbell Curls - 2x8x40, 8x50: Easier than the previous week's curls. I think I might go ahead and do 40/50/50 next time. Glad I'm progressing. Woot big biceps!
Tricep Extensions - 8x35, 8x40, 8x45: Easier than the previous week's extensions. I'm going to up the weights on this as well and do 40/45/50 the next heavy day.
HIIT - 4-7-4-8-4-7-4-8 @ 1min:30sec. intervals: I think the intervals I was doing before involved 1.5min:1min. intervals instead.
02 Feb 2012
Squats:
5 x 120
5 x 140
5 x 180
5 x 180
Not bad. Was noticing again that my left side was dropping down a bit lower than my right side and the weight was rolling forward a bit. I think this has to do with not shoving my knees out evenly with my right leg. Mental cue once reaching the bottom should be "split the floor apart and drive your ass up".
Press:
5 x 50
5 x 60
5 x 70
5 x 80
Tried going for a more natural grip and widened it a bit. Felt better. Made me have a bit more control and felt like my shoulders were working evenly.
Deadlifts:
5 x 145
5 x 175
5 x 205
5 x 235
These felt great today. Noticed that I was shrugging and rolling my shoulders back at the top. Not sure if this is good or not, but felt natural to me in order to lock out the weight.
Accessories:
Situps - 30/15/16: Did these until "failure". I think next time I might change it so that I have to do as many situps as possible within a predetermined amount of time. Doing this exercise to "failure" seems a bit ambiguous and form definitely begins to deteriorate rapidly once my abs get tired, aka my lower back starts to round lordotically.
HIIT - 3-7-8-3-7: Legs were pretty beat by the end of these intervals. I felt a cramp coming along on my right calf.
31 Jan 2012
Squats:
5 x 115
5 x 140
5 x 180
5 x 210
5 x 240
Was a bit hopped up on the pre-workout. Decided not to use the belt on the last set. Butt rose a bit faster than shoulders on the last few reps of the top set. Raising chest and driving hips really helps with cranking the weight up once I get out of the hole.
Bench:
5 x 65
5 x 85
5 x 105
5 x 115
4 x 130 Stall
Disappointed to say the least. I don't know what the deal is with my bench. Over at ironstrong, I've found another individual, johnnyboy, who seems to be exhibiting similar problems as I am on the bench. The feeling I get when I lower the bar to my chest is that the bar shifts to the right, in turn, causing my right elbow to go down farther than it has to thereby causing my right arm to exert more effort to press the bar back up.
Rows:
5 x 65
5 x 85
5 x 95
5 x 115
5 x 130
Still fairly easy. Definitely felt my shoulders and biceps working a bit harder when I kept my hips static. I did this by lifting the bar without acceleration. I noticed that when pulled the bar off the ground too quickly that I was actually using a bit of hip drive and momentum- this shortchanges the amount of work my shoulders get.
Accessories:
Weighted Situps - 12xBW, 12x10, 12x10, 12x15: A bit easier than the previous situp session. Was pretty fatigued 2/3 of the way into the last set though. Abs got pretty sore an hour later once coming home.
Weighted hyperextensions - 10xBW, 10x10, 10x15: Not bad, again this bothers my knees quite a bit.
HIIT - 9min, 2 sets: Was pretty spent after 2 sets.